Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (17 page)

She
was not looking forward to actually visiting the Tower again. She had promised herself that she would never go back, but she didn’t really have much of a choice. If she could find Emara, then the young mystic could explain to the council that she couldn’t have been running around the countryside assassinating people if she was shackled to the wall in some stronghold deep in the wastelands.

“Hey.” Someone cried as Kile ran into them. She fell backwards onto the
sidewalk among a flurry of papers. Vesper cursed loudly in her ear.

“Look where you’re going child.” The man shouted.

“I am...”

She was about to say ‘not a child’, but then she saw the ring on the man’s finger as he picked up the papers. He was a Hunter.

“Sorry” She replied. “I am really sorry.”

“Well you should watch
where your going, instead of gawking at that damn tower.”

“That is the mystic tower, isn’t it sir.” She said as she started to help him pick up his papers. “I’ve never seen it before.”

“Yeah, that’s the Mystic Tower.” The man replied. He didn’t seem very pleased with it, but then she couldn’t blame him. Most Hunters don’t have very fond memories of their time in the tower. It was one big mind game designed to confuse reality with illusion.

She handed him the stack of papers and that was when the Hunter took a good look at her, and especially at the yarrow that was still sitting on her shoulder. She was pushing her luck, she knew
it, but if she ran away he would become suspicious.

“Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so sir.” She replied as she looked him over, pretending to actually care if he did or not.

He was a tall man, short reddish blonde hair, narrow eyes,
and small nose. She would have described him as having the face of the typical Hunter. He took the papers from her, mumbled something and continued on his way down the street.

“You better get into the pouch Vesper. We don’t want to attract too much attention.”
She said as she opened the pouch that she wore on her belt and slipped the yarrow inside. It was smaller than the one she usually wore, but she had lost that one along with just about everything else she owned, thankfully Alisa had a spare.

As the green banner began to get closer, she was seeing more and more young men along the sidewalks carrying papers and packages.
She knew most of these had to be Hunters, more than likely they were level fives or fours if they were still transporting packages. They didn’t take much notice of her as they passed her in the street. They wouldn’t be taking much notice in anything beyond their current deliveries. If they only knew who it was that was walking among them, she was almost a guaranteed promotion to the first one that stopped her.

The Guild Hall was pretty much as Kile had imagined it. A huge white marble building standing three stories high with rows of columns spanning the front and a flight of stairs leading up to a pair of large wooden doors etched with golden filigree. There were guards dressed in the green livery of the Guild posted at every entrance.

“Are you lost Miss?”

She
spun around to see a tall, bookish young man with wired rimed glasses perched on the end of crooked nose. He was carrying a stack of books, some of which Kile had actually read at the Academy. This would be one of the academic varieties of Hunters. The ones that seldom went out on true assignments. They spent most of their time making up laws and regulations to torture the Hunters that worked in the wild.

“I’m sorry
. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He said as he changed his grip on the books and straightened his glasses. “You just appeared to be lost.”

“I was just… admiring the buildings.
It appears to be very active.”

“Yes, it would be, that is the Guild Hall. That is where all Hunter activities are regulated. From this hall we communicate with all the Guild Houses throughout the
Kingdom of Aru. That’s the difference between us Hunters and the common mercenary.”

“You’re a Hunter?” Kile asked with a forced wild eyed admiration.

The young man threw his chest out and grinned. “I am a certified level four Hunter.”

“Level four? So you’re really important.”

“Well… I don’t want to blow my own horn, but… yeah, I would say what I do is very important.”

“And you know your way around this place,
it's just so big. Why, back home I get lost just walking to the barn.”

The young man laughed.

It was just as Alisa had told her, act stupid and bat your eyes and young men will fall all over themselves to do for you. It was actually quite sickening.

“Oh, it’s not that difficult, kind of like a small town divided into a few
buildings, but I can see where some people would think it was confusing.”

“Well, like, what’s that one over there?”
She asked as she pointed to one across the street.

“That… that’s the armory, and beside that is the blacksmith, and next to that is the stables.”

“Then what about those over there?”

“There we have the dinning hall, next to that is guest housing, over there is the hospital and next to that is the quartermasters and finally the library. If you’re really interested, I can show you around. I just have to drop these books off at the library and that’s pretty much it for the day.”

“I would have thought you would be busy, what with all the Hunters that have died or vanished.”

“I assure you that the stories are greatly exaggerated.
A few miscommunications, that’s all. Nothing to be worried about.”

“Yeah, well all the same, I should really be going, I wouldn’t want to keep you from anything important.”

“Maybe I’ll catch you later.” The young man said with a grin.

“Don’t count on it.”
She mumbled as she quickly moved away from him.

-Who was that?-

Vesper asked.

“Just another glorified delivery man with
delusions of grandeur.”

***

Kile kept to the far side of the street as she approached the Hospital. Being stopped by two Hunters, that didn’t recognize her, was pushing her luck just a bit too far. It was only a matter of time before she ran into a hunter that actually read the open bounties board.

The Hospital was a singled floored flat building with a roof that extended out on all sides and was supported by rows of columns. As she got closer she concentrated more on the smell of the place, rather
than what it looked like. It may have looked odd to anyone that might have been watching her, but she was getting very good at discerning different odors and the Hospital was full of them. The strongest was that of the vir, but there were also herbs and medicines as well as the strong scent of death. She really didn’t have to ask directions, she could have found it by its stench alone. As she broke down the individual smells she was able to find the vir she was looking for.

Crossing
the street she walked down the alley between the hospital and the quartermasters where there were no guards. She tried the side doors one by one and eventually found a window that was open. Making sure that she wasn’t going to be seen, she jumped up onto the sill and quietly slipped in, being small had its advantages.

She found herself in one of the treatment rooms, fortunately one that wasn’t being used at the time. Moving to the door she opened it a peeked out into the hall. It was a pretty busy place, one that was too busy for her to go unnoticed.
She searched through the closets of the room before she found one of the long white robes that most of the staff seemed to be fond of wearing, it even came with a hood. They probably got them from the same robe dealer as the mystics at the tower did. She slipped it on, only to discover that it was made for a much taller person. The sleeves were incredibly baggy and she also lost her way in the folds of the cloth. Pulling the slack up the best she could, she ventured out into the hall.

She let her nose lead the way, following the familiar scent as she navigated the halls of the hospital, eventually finding her way into one of the main recovery rooms, which was where she spotted Daniel Leary.

It had only been a year since she had seen him, but she would have sworn that he had grown another few inches since his time at the academy. His tall, lanky frame seemed to tower over that of the other hospital workers, but he still had that wild unkempt blonde hair and the lopsided smile that he wore when he was confused or just thinking about something.

She pulled up the hems of the robe
s and moved between the rows of beds. She was grateful to see that most of them were empty and that Daniel wasn’t very busy. Now all she had to do was determine whether his friendship with her was greater than his loyalty to the guild.

“Have time for another patient.” She asked, trying to keep the pitch of her voice as low as possible. Staff workers were Hunters, and there
were only two female Hunters in the Guild.

“What? Oh, yes, please, have him take a
seat; I’ll be right with him.” Daniel replied as he flipped through his notes.

Taking
the seat she pulled the robes in around her until she sank into a pile of cloth. She didn’t look so much like a patient as she did a pile of laundry.

“Now, what seems to be… oh.” He paused as he looked down at her then around the rest of the room to see if he hadn’t made a mistake. “You’re the patient, I see… so… what seems to be the problem.”

“My wrists.” She replied, still trying to disguise her voice.

“
Um… where are your wrists?” Daniel asked as she pulled at the layers of cloth.

She lifted one arm and he had to pull back nearly two
feet of sleeve before he could find her hand.

“This looks pretty bad, what happened?”

“Does it matter?” She asked as she felt his hands gently touch the bruises and the burns that the shackles and Emara had left behind. His hands were as soothing as she remembered them and her wrist felt better even before he started to use his edge. She could feel the gentle flow of energy as it moved between them.

Daniel was uncommon among hunters. Although his edge was influenced by the sphere of water, it was in the healing arts, something that was rare, even among the mystics. He c
ould seal a wound mend a broken bone or even bring a yarrow back from the edge of death.

“Haven’t I seen
those hands before?” He asked.

“You should have, you’ve repaired my fingers enough times.”
She remarked.

“Oh no… please don’t let this be who I think it is.”
Dannie prayed as he quickly pulled back Kile’s hood.

“Long time no see.” She grinned.

He pulled the hood back over her head.

“There you go, all healed, you better get back to work now.” He said
quickly as he started to move away.

“You still have the other one to do.”

“What are you trying to do? Get me arrested too?”

“I came here for information.”

“I don’t know anything.” He told her as he looked around the hall. “Don’t you realize that I’m being watched? They questioned me for twelve hours straight about you.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Nothing. What could I tell them? We spent four years at the Academy together and I still know anything about you.”

“Don’t even tell me you think I did what they say I did.”

“No… no of course not, it just... they’ve been saying a lot of things, and they’ve been keeping a watch on me night and day. I don’t know if they think I’ve been giving you information or that you would eventually come looking for some, but you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s not like I have a lot of places to go.”

“You could always turn yourself in.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“They’ll go easier on you if you do. I could bring you in.”

“What… so you could collect the bounty on my script. Thank
s a lot.  You're right, it was a mistake coming here.” She said as she tried to get up, but Daniel pushed her back into her seat.

“No,
that's not what I meant, it’s just… there are a lot of Hunters looking for you, and It’s not just for the bounty. There’s something more going on.”

“And you think that me sitting in a cell is going to be safer. Tried that
… didn’t work.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I want to find Tally.”

“Brian Tally? He’s dead, you killed him.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.” She replied, a little too loudly. A few of the white robed workers looked in their direction.

“Will you keep it down?” Daniel told her. “Look, they found one
of your… swords at the man’s house. You know those weird ones that you use.”

“They're called Lann. Is that all they have as evidence?”